Hi Celo community,
I’m Gare, founder of TapPay, a self-custodial mobile payments wallet launching in Nigeria, built on Celo L2, using NGNm (Mento Nigerian Naira stablecoin) as the primary settlement token.
The problem we’re solving:
Nigeria has 200 million people and zero tap-to-pay infrastructure. Apple Pay is unavailable. Every payment requires opening a banking app, entering account numbers, waiting for OTP SMS, and screenshotting a receipt — 3-4 minutes per transaction. Meanwhile, Nigerians in the UK and US send $20 billion home every year, losing 8-12% to Western Union and MoneyGram fees.
What TapPay does:
- Domestic: Two users tap their phones together via NFC. Payment settles in NGNm on Celo in under 2 seconds. No QR code, no app navigation, no receipt screenshot — just tap.
- International: A diaspora sender in London visits send.usetappay.app, pays via bank transfer through Transak, and the Nigerian recipient’s TapPay wallet receives cUSD within minutes. No app download required for the sender.
Why we chose Celo:
Celo is the only network with a Nigerian Naira stablecoin (NGNm via Mento), sub-cent gas fees, and a mobile-first ethos that matches our users. The L2 migration in March 2025 made it even more suitable — Ethereum-grade security with the UX we need for mass-market consumer payments in Nigeria.
Current status:
The app is production-ready across 5 build phases:
- Full NFC tap-to-pay flow with NDEF encoding, replay prevention, and offline queue
- Flutterwave virtual accounts for NGN deposit/withdrawal
- Transak integration for UK/US diaspora remittance
- Complete Mento Broker swap implementation (cUSD → NGNm) with runtime BiPool availability check
- 20+ Supabase Edge Functions, AML rule engine, KYC tiers, admin dashboard
- TypeScript strict mode, zero errors
We are currently on Celo Sepolia testnet. Lagos + UK diaspora launch planned in 60 days.
One thing we need ecosystem help on:
We have a complete cUSD → NGNm swap implementation using Mento’s Broker — getAmountOut(), swapIn(), slippage protection, the works. The code checks findExchangeId() on the BiPoolManager at runtime and enables the swap if the pool exists.
The pool doesn’t exist yet on mainnet. We’ve posted on the Mento forum requesting a cUSD/NGNm BiPool — TapPay’s remittance corridor creates consistent, recurring cUSD → NGNm demand from day one. Once the pool activates, our code works automatically with no changes.
If anyone in the Celo community has context on the BiPool activation process or connections to the Mento governance team, we’d welcome the introduction.
How TapPay serves Celo’s mission:
Celo was built for financial inclusion in Africa. TapPay is exactly that use case — bringing tap-to-pay payments and low-cost remittances to 200 million Nigerians who have neither today, using NGNm to keep value on-chain rather than routing through banks. Every TapPay transaction is an NGNm transaction on Celo.
We’re also exploring the Celo Africa DAO Incubator and Proof of Ship — happy to hear from anyone involved in those programmes.
Happy to share more about the technical architecture, demo the app, or answer any questions.
Thanks
Gare Aganbi
Founder, TapPay